Reflections on the Treasure Basket and Heuristic Play

by Elinor Goldschmied

Quotations from People Under Three - Young children in day care by Elinor Goldschmied and Sonia Jackson, Routledge, London and New York

People Under Three proposes a new approach to group day care of very young children, translating child development theory and research into everyday practice. ... a book which will be of direct practical use to policy makers, managers, child care workers, social workers and students, as well as to parents.

We know that babies brains are growing fast, and that the brain develops as it responds to streams of input coming from the baby's surroundings, through the senses of touch, smell, taste, hearing, sight and bodily movement. The Treasure Basket gather's together and provides a focus for a rich variety of everyday objects chosen to offer stimulus to those different senses. The use of the Treasure Basket is one way that we can ensure a richness in the baby's experience when the brain is ready to receive, to make connections and so to make use of this information (page 87).

The Treasure Basket: the activity Elinor Goldschmied proposed for babies beginning around 5 or 6 months

Here we are considering what can be made available to the child who is sitting up but is still rooted to the spot, which can be a time of great frustration. Things can be seen and heard but are not within the grasp of an outstretched hand. It is here that a well stocked Treasure Basket, provided by a thoughtful adult, can offer experience of absorbing interest, enabling a baby to pursue vital learning for which she is ready and eager. As we closely observe a baby with the objects in the Treasure basket we can note how many different things she does with them, looking, touching, grasping, mouthing, licking, waving, banging, picking up, dropping, selecting and discarding what does or does not attract her.

Infants at Work: Babies of 6-9 months exploring everyday objects DVD in English

link to Infants at Work in Italian, presented by Elinor Goldschmied

The rich and varied quantity of objects in the Treasure Basket enables children to enjoy multiple sensory experiences. By sucking, mouthing and handling, babies are finding out about weight, size, shapes, texture, sound and smell, and as they choose an object we can imagine that they are saying, "What is this?" The concentration of a baby on the contents of the Treasure Basket is one thing that astonishes observers seeing it for the first time. Attention may last up to one hour or more. There are two factors which lies behind this: the infant's lively curiosity which the varied objects arouse, and her will to practice her growing skill in taking possession, under her own steam, of what is new, attactive and close at hand (page 88).

Elinor Goldschmied used the word heuristic, derived from the Greek word eurisko (serves to discover or reach understanding) for the activity that she proposed for children aged 12 to 22 months.

“Éureka! - I have found it” Archimedes is said to have declared as he leapt from his bath, when he discovered the law of displacement)

Heuristic Play with Objects - learning by exploration and discovery

Put simply, it consists of offering a group of children for a defined period of time [the work cycle] in a controlled environment [a prepared environment] a large number of different kinds of objects and receptacles with which they play freely without adult intervention. ...

By using the term 'heuristic play' we want to draw attention to the great importance of this kind of spontaneous exploratory activity, giving it the significance and dignity which it merits. ...

Increasing mobility is the central factor in the child's developing abilities in the second year of life. The newly acquired skill in moving is practiced ceaselessly throughout the waking day, and it is often this passion for moving about which creates anxieties for the responsible adult and causes them to restrict the child and limit her opportunities for learning. ...

The urge to use their increasingly precise eye-hand-object coordination combined with lively curiosity becomes a source of conflict.

It is often said that the concentration we observe in infants seated at the Treasure Basket is lost once they can move about. Typically caregivers comment that children between one and two 'flit from one thing to another', that the play material available does not hold their attention for more than a few minutes. They are not interested in puzzles or putting pegs in their 'proper' holes, and would usually rather throw them on the floor. In fact the child is saying to us 'there are other things I want to do first'. Their level of competence cannot be satisfied by play material where there is a right answer, determined by adults.

Children in their second year feel a great urge to explore and discover for themselves the way objects behave in space as they manipulate them. They need a variety of objects with which to do this kind of experimentation, objects with which are constantly new and interesting, and which certainly cannot be bought from a toy catalogue. ...

Far from losing the ability to concentrate, it becomes clear that, given the right conditions and materials, the child in her second year can develop concentration in a new way. ...

(pages 118-119).

Photo from Amici di Elinor

"Heuristic play with objects" in english

written and produced Elinor Goldschmied and Anita Hughes

Some important points:

children make their spontaneous selection from a wide range of materials [freedom of choice]
they work with purpose and concentration [real and purposeful activity]
their physical energy and developing manipulative skill are an essential part of the satisfying and pleasurable activity. This leads to the constant practicing and gaining in competence [repetition leads to mastery]
In the process of exploration of the material the question on right and wrong ways to use it does not arise. This element of guaranteed success creates a very different experience for the child from much of the 'educational' play material often given to the children of this age, which has a result predetermined by the design devised by an adult toy-maker [self-correction]
children engrossed in their own discoveries do not come into conflict with others in the group, largely because there is so much material available... It has been observed that children, as they approach the age of two, begin to engage in cooperative exchanges with others which arise from the exploration of the material, initiated originally for themselves [spontaneous socialization]

see pages 121-122

Children's 'heuristic play' activities illustrate how they will move items in and out of spaces, fill and empty receptacles. From the mass of objects available, they select, discriminate and compare, place in series, slot and pile, roll and balance, with concentration, growing manipulative skill and evident satisfaction.

Of course all this also occurs spontaneously in the process of play with anything that happens to be available, but usually in spite of the adults and not because of them. These patterns emerge from children's naturally developing bodily activity provided that they are facilitated by the environment.

Very young children engaged in Heuristic Play have been observed playing intensely with a group of objects for thirty minutes or more. Superficially this activity may appear to be random or pointlessly repetitive, which is probably why adults are often tempted to intervene. In fact, close observation shows that the play has its own internal logic. The repetition is very like the activity of scientists who develop their knowledge by carrying out the same experiment over and over again with tiny variations (pages 122-123).

See also The Key Person in the Early Years (2011), Elinor Goldschmied & Peter Eifer, David Fulton 2003 ISBN 978-88-8434-503-0

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